Blog

Written by Dr Mendoza Is it ethically correct to work with a client who wants to lose weight but psychologically they are not ready? This raises several interesting points. First, how do you know if they are ready to lose weight? I mean surely if they have come to you as a trainer and are willing to pay you for...

Failure is Feedback By Dr Mendoza In the model for change theorised by Prochaska and DiClemente a key part of how we make a behaviour change is relapse. Whenever we try to make some change in our lives things will generally go quite well in the early stages and we will be very confident that this is going to work....

Empathy with your client’s situation predicts your results Written by Dr Gary Mendoza Empathy is the single best predictor of a high success rate in counselling. By developing good empathic skills your clients will value and appreciate the working relationship you have with them. This type of relationship, where the client’s autonomy is respected, will ultimately get better results for...

What is Motivational Interviewing? written by Dr Gary Mendoza Motivational interviewing (MI) is a way of being with a client, not just a set of techniques for doing counselling (Miller and Rollnick. 1991). A laypersons definition would be ‘MI is a collaborative conversation style for strengthening a person’s own motivation and commitment to change’. To understand what MI is it...

Are You Ready to Lose Weight? written by Dr Gary Mendoza This may seem like a strange question but actually it is very relevant. My research has shown that in some cases men will employ a personal trainer with the main aim being to lose weight. However, when I psychometrically tested these men to assess their readiness to change, in...

Decisional Balance or Sitting on the Fence When you make any decision in life you weigh up the pros and cons of the situation. The pros are all the things that you perceive as favourable, and thus supporting the decision. The cons are the downside and that you perceive as unfavourable, thus against the decision. This process is known as...